About SHR

We’re just two girls who love watching hockey and then talking about it. We’re huge fans of the Dallas Stars - we love the game, the players, and the entire franchise - but we also just really love hockey. This is where we indulge in our minor obsession.

The best way to get in touch with us is to post a comment on one of our posts, but if you need to, feel free to email us at stophittingrobidas@gmail.com.

ESPNby Pierre LeBrunStars: 13 this week; 14 last week. “Backup netminder (at least in theory) Alex Auld drew back-to-back starts in losses to Florida and Nashville as the Stars continue underwhelming (2-2-2) play at home.”Of Note: Phoenix at 6 this week; 16 last week. “The Coyotes continue to prove they are for real with three straight wins, and Ilya Bryzgalov continues to shine in goal. (He’s allowed just 25 goals in 13 games.)”My thoughts: Underwhelming is one way to put it. You could also substitute “pathetic” or “uninspired” and be okay. For a team that had a 16-19-6 road record last season, the Stars are winning road games they should not be winning – and losing home games they should not be losing. This season’s 4-1-3 road record is definitely better than 2-2-2 at home, but the L5 of 2-1-2 isn’t stellar. No matter where they play, the Stars need to pick it up. Having a goalie with a breakout season like Bryzgalov would go a long way towards that, but so would some solid defense and consistent special teams. Sound familiar?

TSN
Stars: 6 this week; 11 last week. “With four points in the last four games, Fabian Brunnstrom is starting to contribute offensively, giving the Stars all kinds of depth up front. Now, they just need Marty Turco to get over his illness, because he’s been much better than Alex Auld so far this season. Key Injuries: G Marty Turco (flu).”Of Note: Boston at 20 this week; 20 last week. “Not the Bruins handle the man advantage much better, going 2-for-36 (5.6%) over the last 11 games, a trend that might prompt a change in power play personnel, like getting Dennis Wideman back on the first unit in place of Derek Morris, for example. Key Injuries: C Marc Savard (foot), LW Milan Lucic (finger).”My thoughts: Finally, Fabian Brunnstrom gets some credit. Everyone is so busy talking about Holy Cow Jamie Benn that they’re overlooking the fact that Bunny has quietly accumulated six assists and a goal so far. It’s also nice to hear that our starting goalie has been better than our backup goalie this season, considering that’s kind of how it should be. Turco’s been a bit shaky at times, giving up goals at critical times, but his overall game is much better than it was last season. So far he’s got a .917 sv%. More importantly, he’s sitting with a 2.26 GAA in front of a team that’s scoring 3.43 goals per game on average. That’s behind only Calgary, Washington, and Philly, in case you were wondering. It helps that, unlike the mighty Bruins, the Stars are occassionally managing to score on their PPs. With Brad Richards back and healthy, our middle-of-the-league power play should improve. As long as that happens, and Turco keeps up the good work, the Stars should also continue to improve.

Yahooby Ross McKeonStars: 16 this time; 17 last time. “Marty Turco is off to a better start this season than last. You don’t think it has anything to do with it being a contract year, do ya?”Of Note: Colorado at 2 this time; 30 last time. “Best story of the early season, bar none. Craig Anderson is emerging as a star in goal. And if you haven’t gotten a glimpse of teen-aged rookies Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene you really are missing something.”My thoughts: Another ranking, another talk of our goaltending. Turco needs to have a big year, but more than that, the Stars need Turco to have a big year. Of course, Turco being off to a better start this year than last doesn’t say much, considering he started last year with 29 goals against in his first eight games. At least this year, he has a viable backup in Alex Auld (who I still believe in despite his rocky back-to-back starts last week). Meanwhile, Colorado has in Craig Anderson what we wish we could have in Turco, as Anderson has been leading the surprise charge to first place in the West for the Avs.

Overall, despite a less than stellar handful of games to close out the start of the season, the media seems to be remaining pretty optomistic about the Stars. It has been an encouraging first month. They have points in 11 of their first 14 – points that could be very valuable when the playoff crunch rolls around. For November, I’m hoping they start picking up those points in regulation instead of giving away points in a good third of the games they play. As much as the points we’ve gained in OT losses could help us in the final crunch, the points we’ve given to other teams could hurt us. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

At time of publication, The Hockey News had yet to update their power rankings for the week.

Thanks to some serious lack of offense, we were treated to basically three hours of Ralph and Razor’s Goalie Exhibition.

On one end of the rink was Ilya Bryzgalov, claimed off waivers from Anaheim in November 2007.

On the other was Marty Turco, drafted, farmed, and raised to magnificence by the Stars.

While, at first glance, it was perfectly reasonable to expect a 3-2 game from the two goaltenders, the reality was that they’d built up walls between the pipes and dared someone to get something through.

The first period was uneventful at best. There was only one penalty, a hooking minor called on Stephane Robidas at 19:35, and no scoring. James Neal and Loui Eriksson both had chances on Bryzgalov, but they were distance shots that he was able to get a piece of and hold the game scoreless.

The second period belonged to the goalies, though, and brought the audience to a single conclusion: these netminders would not soon be cracked, and whoever managed to get something by them would probably win the game.

Despite a myriad of penalties (Kyle Turris at 3:07, Robidas again at 6:08, and Steven Reinprecht at 18:31) and following power play opportunities, the game continued at a 0-0 tie.

Bryzgalov and Turco both came up big in the period, matching each other in big saves. When the Phoenix goalkeeper gobbled up a juicy rebound on the Stars PP, Turco raised the bid by shutting the door on a Martin Hanzal breakaway attempt.

The second period ended scoreless, and during intermission we were treated to an interview with Steve Ott. He looked a little worn out, the blood on his jersey a testament to how hard the teams were going at each other, and assured Razor that getting a goal would make it all feel better.

Third period started, and we were treated to the climax of a great goaltender battle.

Turco began the challenge by shutting down the Coyotes power play after Trevor Daley got two minutes for holding at 5:52.

Bryzgalov responded by putting the lock on Loui Eriksson, who tried to redirect a centering feed into the net.

At the other end of the ice, it was the Marty Turco show again, when he stopped an initial shot and let his rebound loose out in front. When Turris grabbed the puck and tried to put it in the open net, Turco absolutely robbed him with a larcenous glove save.

The game went into overtime and out again with nobody scoring, giving shutouts to both goalies. It was Turco’s first of the season, and first road shutout in over 80 games.

The shootout was painful, as always. Richards, Lindstrom, and Eriksson were all stopped, but Mueller scored, putting the Coyotes up one after two rounds. Ribeiro scored in the third, utilizing his between-the-legs trick (and a bit of luck) to get the puck in the net. Turco stopped Jokinen with a steady glove save, putting the game in sudden death shootout mode.

Neal and Reinprecht both scored in round four.

Unfortunately, Modano tried his typical high glove side shot and was stopped, but Turris managed to fake out Turco with some forehand to backhand trickery, and Phoenix won the game 1-0.

Notes:

The three stars, in order: Bryzgalov, Turco, Turris

The shutout was Turco’s first in 46 games and 34th of his career.

Neal’s shootout goal was his second on his second career attempt. That’s 100%, or for the people that like comparing him to the Dallas captain, the exact same amount of goals and attempts as Brenden Morrow.

Joel Lundqvist returned to the lineup, on a line with Richards and Eriksson, and said after the game that he felt pretty good.

Chris Conner and Doug Janik were the healthy scratches.

The Stars outshot the Coyotes 38-28 and won 57% of the faceoffs.

The Coyotes outhit the Stars, however, 36-20. 9 of those hits were from Neal and Ott alone.

Conclusion: Was it Bryzgalov just in the zone, or is there something wrong with our offense that makes good goalies look like great ones? The PP is struggling again and it’s almost starting to look like the Stars just can’t hit the net from any distance. Who cares if you outshoot the opponent every game if all 40 shots go straight to the goalie?

SHR +/-:

Nicklas Grossman: one for solid defense; +1Stephane Robidas: minus-one for the dumb penalty but one for the penalty that saved a goal; +0Matt Niskanen: one for solid defense; +1Trevor Daley: minus-one for the dumb penalty; -1Mike Modano: minus-one for lack of shootout creativity; -1James Neal: one for the shootout goal, one for style, and one for leading in hits; +3Loui Eriksson: one for leading in shots on goal and one for looking hurt on the bench but nearly scoring on the following shift; +2Steve Ott: one for being energetic and fearless; +1Marty Turco: four for the shutout, one for all the big saves, but minus-one for being easily tricked in the shootout; +4Joel Lundqvist: two for being healthy and one for reminding us all why we need him; +3Mike Ribeiro: one for the shootout goal; +1Brad Richards: one for dominating in the faceoff circle; +1

So… I’ve been sick, and Kristine has been working, so a lot has happened that hasn’t made it onto the blog. Apologies for the ghost site SHR’s been this week. Instead of catching up on Thursday night, we went to the Blue Jacket’s game instead, and it was absolutely worth it.

Now we’re a bit backlogged though, so it’s all getting thrown out in one long, slightly outdated post.

—–

SHR +/-:
(for the 12/13/08 Dallas at Nashville game)

Nicklas Grossman: one for leading the team in hits in Robidas’ absence; +1Matt Niskanen: minus-two for a sloppy game; -2Trevor Daley: one for leading in TOI in Robidas’ absence; +1Tobias Stephan: three for a solid performance despite the rest of the team flaking; +3Doug Janik: one for tying with Parrish for most takeaways; +1Mark Parrish: one for tying with Janik for most takeaways; +1Brad Richards: two for leading the team in SOGbut minus-one for failing to score on any of them; +1

—–

Game Notes and SHR +/-:
(for the 12/16/08 Phoenix at Dallas game)

Three game stars, in order: Turco, Eriksson, Bryzgalov

Loui Eriksson scored twice, and was the only Star to score in the 2-1 win. His second was the game-winning OT goal.

Eriksson’s goals gave him 14 for the season- tying his previous season high recorded in 07-08 over 69 games.

Marty Turco made 22 saves on 23 shots for a .957 sv%

The game was defenseman Nicklas Grossman’s 100th in the NHL.

Conclusion: The Stars got the lead early, went 0-for-3 on the power play, and ended up having the game tied half-way through the first. For being such an important win, the team should not have had to depend so entirely on Turco and Eriksson.

Nicklas Grossman: one for tying for the lead in blocked shots but minus-one for leading in giveaways; +0Matt Niskanen: two for the assist and one for leading the team in hits; +3 James Neal: one for leading the team in SOG; +1Loui Eriksson: three for each goal and one for helping carry the entire team; +7Tom Wandell: one goodbye point for playing his last game here this year; +1Chris Conner: two for the assist and one goodbye point; +3Marty Turco: two for playing well again after his night off; +2Mike Ribeiro: two for the assist; +2Brad Richards: two for the assist and one for leading in takeaways; +3

—–

Injury Update:

Stephane Robidas (broken jaw), Steve Ott (broken hand), and Joel Lundqvist (shoulder injury) all returned to the lineup for Thursday’s game against the Blue Jackets.

Robidas was injured when he took a puck to the mouth December 10th, requiring braces on his bottom teeth, stitches galore, and a metal plate in the jaw (had surgery on the 11th to fix it). He returned only a week later, sporting the classic cage from last season.

Ott broke his hand during a fight on November 22nd, when he took on Steve Montador of the Anaheim Ducks. Having apparently jammed it trying to grab Montador at the beginning of the fight, Ott finished the scrum- and the rest of the game. With the injury, he can’t fight again for awhile, but that definitely won’t stop him from his other agitating duties.

Lundqvist’s shoulder injury was bad enough to cost him 21 games, as he couldn’t handle full contact without risking re-injury. He returned in full form though, logging a game-high 9 hits in his return.

Jere Lehtinen is said to be close to returning, but it looks like we won’t see Sergei Zubov for awhile. It was announced Thursday that he’ll have to undergo another hip surgery and will likely be sidelined the rest of the season. Fortunately, he also expressed a willingness to continue his career, and will have all summer to rehab.

Trevor Daley also seemed to be injured, leaving the game against Columbus early, but he seems likely to be alright to play on the upcoming road trip.

With the return of some key veterans came the loss of some young hopefuls. Chris Conner was reassigned to Peoria and Tom Wandell returned to Sweden. It seems unlikely that we’ll be seeing much of either for the rest of this season, but you never know.

—–

Holy Cow, Jamie Benn:

Stars prospect Jamie Benn has been lighting up the Western Hockey League, with 45 points (24 goals, 21 assists) in 27 games, including a streak of six games in which he earned 18 points.

His offensive prowess garnered the attention of quite a few with his recent success in Canada’s National Junior Team selection camp, getting three goals and an assist in three intra-squad games. Benn earned himself a spot on Canada’s World Juniors roster along with possible 2009 #1 draft pick John Travares.

The World Junior teams for Canada and Sweden faced off in an exhibition game on Friday. Canada came out on top of the 4-2 match that showcased goals from Tavares, his competition for #1 overall (Viktor Hedman), and our very own Jamie Benn.

There was an indiscernible good feeling going into this game. The Avery situation was being dealt with, we had a new center and an actual fourth line in Swedish import Tom Wandell, and were coming off a slight but much-needed win against Colorado.

Of course, assuming you know how the game ended, that good feeling did not bring us the start of a winning streak. Instead, it was quickly converted into a grimace-inducing loss.

The first period started with a bit of hope. Rookie James Neal spent some time exchanging hits with Todd Fedoruk, a big hitter with nearly 40 pounds on Neal. Fedoruk, who did not register points, but made an effort to be a giant physical pain all night.

Shortly after, the first of many unnecessary penalties was taken, by Coyote Zbynek Michalek, at 2:04 for sending the puck over the glass. Whoops.

The two minutes passed with the Stars only getting 1 shot on goal, from RW Mark Parrish. How many times do they have to be told to shoot the puck on the man advantage?

The PP did give Dallas strong momentum, though, and it turned into points shortly after Phoenix returned to full strength.

The production came from a fast, well-orchestrated play from Chris Conner to Toby Petersen, and then from Petersen to Trevor Daley. Daley took a shot off from the faceoff circle left of Bryzgalov that rang off the post and into the net, giving Dallas a 1-0 lead 4:34 into the first. I believe, though I’m not entirely positive, that it was the first goal from a Dallas defenseman since Matt Niskanen scored on October 29th against the Minnesota Wild.

Darryl Sydor joined in the fun at 4:50, flipping the puck off the ice and getting 2 minutes for it.

Phoenix captain Shane Doan pretty much dominated that PP, nearly scoring on Turco and doing his best to squash Mike Ribeiro. No PPG for them, though. Towards the end of the PK, Loui Erikkson got a scoring opportunity against Bryzgalov, unfortunately stopped.

Not even three minutes after taking an early lead, the Stars saw it slip away. At 7:19, Martin Hanzal wreaked some emotional havoc for the first of two times in the game. With half of the Stars on the ice getting tricked and confused behind the net, and Turco unable to slid across his crease fast enough, Hanzal slid the puck barely between Turco and the post to tie the game. Unlucky Breaks Tally (things that, had they not happened, would have kept Dallas from being a crumbly mess): 1.

Viktor Tikhonov and Zbynek Michalek with assists.

Brad Richards got all flustered or something? Got his second regular season penalty as a Star for holding the stick at 8:10. D’oh! Richards. Do I directly blame him for the following goal? No, but only because penalties are so rare from him. Otherwise, well, you can’t get scored on during the PK if you don’t have guys in the box to begin with.

At 9:49, Olli Jokinen, returning to the lineup for the first time since his shoulder injury, tipped a puck in past Turco from a blue line shot by Ed Jovanovski. Second assist went to Derek Morris.

However, not even a minute later (10:26), Mikkel Boedker got a holding penalty on Chris Conner and put the Stars on a critical power play.

The game was re-tied shortly after, during the consequential power play, when James Neal found himself with a puck and a partially open net. Stephane Robidas faked a shot, drawing Bryzgalov out of position, only to pass the puck to Neal, who steadied it and put it in the net.

The goal came at 10:58, with Mike Modano getting the second assist.

There were four more penalties in the first. Tikhonov got a hooking minor for the Coyotes. Andrew Hutchinson got the third delay of game penalty for the Stars. Then, Enver Lisin and Derek Morris took back-to-back cross checking penalties. Despite all the man advantages and a 5-on-3 in favor of the Stars, the score remained tied exiting the first.

Somewhere in here, Stephane Robidas took a puck/stick (I believe it is the latter, but have heard it was the former) in the mouth, leaving plenty of blood on the ice and would not return until midway through the second period. Anyone know for sure how it happened?

Second period.

Started on a power play. Then, at 3:13, got another one when Lisin got two minutes for hooking Sydor. Shockingly, the Stars did not score on their power play.

In typical Stars fashion, as two minutes is not enough time for them to convert momentum into scoring, the goal came a little bit later.

It was off another fast play from a lower line (Brunnstrom-Petersen-Conner, I believe?) that led to Conner setting up Fabian “Tiebreaker Bunny” Brunnstrom out in front of the net. And so the tie was broken. 3-2 Stars at 8:35 in the second, Conner and Sydor with the assists.

Things went pretty well for awhile after that, despite a couple untimely penalties and pathetic power plays. Trevor Daley, who saved a goal somewhere in the first by backing up Turco and clearing the puck from his crease, would eat any points he would have earned by taking a stupid penalty that changed the momentum of the game.

Basically, Daniel Carcillo, who had been in the box for knocking over Turco who totally sold it as goalie interference by being really easy to knock over, managed to sneak out of the sin bin with remarkable timing. Daley, who let Carcillo sneak up and grab the puck between him and Turco without even realizing, suddenly found himself chasing a possibly problematic breakaway. So, what did he do? He tried to chop Carcillo down like a tree by slashing him in the legs. Thus, setting up the Coyotes for a power play of their own.

Jokinen, on PP fire, made sure to punish Daley thoroughly. At 19:56 in the third, during a frantic PK that was barely holding on to their team’s lead, Marty Turco was thrown horribly out of position and left a gaping net for Jokinen, who took full advantage. Jovanovski and Mueller got the assists.

Second period ended with a major blow, and a loss of momentum not to be regained.

Third period. Mm. That fuse that the ‘Yotes lit in the second? It’d set off a big time explosion not too long after.

Only five minutes in, Turco left his crease to retrieve the puck, hitting it around the boards behind his net. As he slowwllly wannddered back to his crease, the puck bounced oddly and unfortunately off Daley’s stick. Unlucky Breaks Tally: 2. The puck hopped out eagerly in front of the net, where Martin Hanzal just so happened to be. While Matt Niskanen dived out in front of the still-empty net, Hanzal had no trouble getting it past him, and it suddenly became a chasing game again.

I timed it. Is there any reason it takes Turco 6 seconds to get from the board to his net? We saw Tobias Stephan move from the crease to the bench in about 2 seconds. Come on, Turco, would a little hustle kill you? Ergggg. Even Niskanen saw it coming and thought fast enough to try and stop it.

The goal came at 5:21 and was unassisted (and giftwrapped. Merry Christmas!).

The Stars tried to fight back unsuccessfully. Neal got a little violent and took his anger out on Carcillo, much to our delight. Carcillo, meet Neal; Carcillo, meet ice.

As the clock wound down, the Stars (very stupidly – do they watch their own PPs?) went empty net. The puck bounced through center ice soooon after, Steven Reinprecht picked it up, Robidas was the nearest Star and still all the way across the ice. He couldn’t catch up, Reinprecht has enough skill to score in an empty net, and it was 5-3 Coyotes.

Goal was at 19:36, with assists to Shane Doan and Ilya Bryzgalov.

Notes:

Three game stars, in order: Jokinen, Neal, Hanzal

Despite missing a large chunk of the game getting stitched up, and spending the rest occassionally dripping blood onto the ice, Stephane Robidas led the team in TOI with 25:14.

Speaking of Robidas, he also tied with Toby Petersen for most SOG (4), tallied an assist, and ended the game even in +/-.

James Neal led the team in takeaways (3) and Grossman and Daley tied for most blocked shots with 4 each.

Brad Richards had the worst +/- at -3, tallied no points, and only got 1 SOG in over twenty minutes of ice time.

Turco stopped 29 of 33 shots for a .879 sv%.

Tom Wandell made his debut, but only got six minutes and did not register any points.

SHR +/-:

Nicklas Grossman: two for tying for the lead in hits and blocked shots; +2Stephane Robidas: two for the assist and two for a good game despite playing with a bloody mouth; +4Trevor Daley: three for the goal, one for the goal he prevented, minus-two for the stupid penalty, and minus-two for the goal he giftwrapped; +0Mike Modano: two for the assist; +2Krys Barch: two for tying for the lead in most hits; +2Toby Petersen: two for the assist and one for an otherwise good game; +3James Neal: three for the goal; +3Tom Wandell: one for his debut; +1Chris Conner: two for each assist; +4Marty Turco: minus-two for icky savelessness; -2Darryl Sydor: two for the assist; +2Brad Richards: minus-one for the team worst +/- and minus-one for the rare stupid penalty; -2Fabian Brunnstrom: three for the goal; +3

Putting aside the Boucher-Sydor trade craze for a moment, one recalls that we did actually just win an important game yesterday.

The puck dropped at 7:00 PM CT at the Jobing.com Center in Phoenix, kicking off a game against two Pacific division rivals.

It was airing on KDFI instead of FSN-SW, and while I’m still annoyed at FS about the Sharks thing, at least they didn’t have a few seconds of black screen every five minutes. That got frustrating.

Tippett considerably juggled the lines, putting out Morrow-Modano-Lehtinen as our starting line. The second line was Avery-Richards-Parrish, the third was Brunnstrom-Petersen-Eriksson, and the fourth was Ott-Ribeiro-Barch. I was pretty happy with this, because it meant a little more ice time for Barch and Brunnstrom. Defensive pairings were Robidas-Daley, Grossman-Zubov, and Niskanen-Janik.

The game itself did not start out so hot for our Stars. Thirty seconds in, Coyote Olli Jokinen struck Dallas defenseman Trevor Daley across the face with his stick. Blood was drawn, fans were alarmed, and Jokinen was given a double hi-sticking. This gave us a full 4 minutes of 5-on-4 with which to take the lead.

As the minutes ticked by, there were painfully few SOG for the Stars. In fact, the only true scoring chance was in the last twenty seconds of the PP when Steve Ott nearly deflected a shot from Ribeiro past Ilya Bryzgalov. It was blocked, and the game continued scoreless.

The first period continued on without points on the board, but also showed a distinctive change in the Stars play. We were directing instead of chasing, and it’d pay off shortly.

Around 11:03, Ribeiro got a hilariously awesome scoring chance when he dropped the puck between his own legs and flipped it from there up into Bryzgalov’s face. Highlight-reel wonderful.

The actual goal started off with some good ol’ fashioned Turco puckhandling behind his net, sending the puck to Robi and then Eriksson. Eriksson and Ribeiro carried it out of their zone and through center ice. Eriksson swept the puck up (possibly deflecting it off the Phoenix goalie) into the net to take an early lead.

The goal came at 17:06, with Mike Ribeiro getting the first assist and Stephane Robidas the second.

The first period ended, and in the first intermission Ralph interviewed… Coyote captain Shane Doan. Supposedly as a favor to Razor, who was MIA during the entire thing. Doan jokes that he felt obligated because of Razor’s three Emmy’s. We find out that Turco said he likes playing against Doan and Doan says Turco is one tough cookie. (My words, not his). They talk about the Coyotoes and the playoffs and Ralph asks if Doan’s ever won an Emmy, to which he replies, “I dont even know what they look like.” So basically nothing to do with us, but still funny.

The second period kicked off with the same momentum we’d seen building in the first. Coyotes Kevin Porter did have a near-breakaway, but his shot was blocked by a dive-and-slide by Robidas. Seconds later, Barch forcefully upended Steven Reinprecht in center ice, turning him into Coyote kibble.

I love Barch, so I was a little annoyed when Doan went and smashed him into the boards. Just sticking up for his teammate, I guess.

Avery got tired right about here and tried to hitch a ride on Yandle by clinging to the back of his jersey. Shockingly, they called him on holding. Turco performed excellently and held the game at a tie through the Coyotes power play.

I guess Phoenix’s Viktor Tikhonov was so annoyed that he felt like hooking Avery, so he did, and we went on the PP. Less than a minute later, at 8:13, Parrish deflected a Zubov slap shot for a PP goal. Ribeiro got the second assist.

3/4 of the way through the second, Carcillo started trying to pick a fight with Steve Ott after Ott knocked him silly in the corner. Carcillo pushed and shoved but got nothing from Ott but a few choice words. Barch skated over and got between them with his gigantic self and looked all intimidating (or, as Razor said, “Here comes the stars cop, like ‘no, you don’t'”). Carcillo fought the official, trying to get at Barch and Ott, who stood there and chirped at him. Ott and Carcillo both got unsportsmanlike conduct minors.

It may have been a move to chill them both out, but the officials didn’t plan that very well. Both exited the box at the same time, and ended up “chucking knuckles” within seconds. Despite some issues with his shoulder gear, Ott still put in some solid hits. Both got 5 for fighting.

A few moments later, at 19:05, Mike Ribeiro did something clever. Again. He’s always clever, but yeah. He carried the puck into the Coyote’s defensive zone, hesitated, and tried a slap shot. It was pretty uncharacteristic, and provided a wonderful cheesy rebound. Petersen shuffled for the puck, getting it around Bryzgalov to Eriksson, who netted it for his second in the game.

Despite the best efforts of Zubov and Turco, the two-point lead was quickly notched down by a Coyotes goal at 19:22 by Kevin Porter with assists from Mikkel Boedker and Martin Hanzal.

Second period ended.

Ott interview in the second intermission, where he mentions that he didn’t want to fight Carcillo because it could give the Coyotes momentum to tie the game, but had just had enough. Way to use good judgement, Otter.

Third period started.

Hanzal is a fun name, but not a fun guy. He laid out Brunnstrom in center ice early in the third, angering us at SHR and apparently Toby Petersen (who I think only gets along with Swedes). The camera moved away, so I’m not sure what happened, but apparently Petersen skated up to challenge Hanzal. Petersen got two minutes for slashing and Hanzal two for elbowing. Sounds like a fun confrontation.

The rest of the period was less exciting. Sean Avery got another stupid penalty, but we killed it off to maintain our 3-2 lead.

At the end of the game, Olli Jokinen had a key chance to tie it up and force an overtime when the Coyotes went open net. He was thwarted by Turco, who kicked the puck away for the first save and protected their win with his goalie stick for the second.

Win (and two points) for the Dallas Stars! Much-needed, to say the least.

It was a three-point game for Ribeiro, who had an assist in each goal. It was Eriksson’s second 2-goal game this season.

Marty Turco stopped 25 in 27 shots, raising his sv% to .870.

Both of Petersen’s only two assists this season have come off goals by Swedish players (Brunnstrom and Eriksson)

This was Doug Janik’s second game with the Stars, having left the first five minutes in with a nasty facial laceration. He played a solid game, putting in 12:49 in ice time and ending the game +1.

Sergei Zubov now has points in each of the last 3 games.

The Stars won 71% of their faceoffs, led by Mike Modano, who won 14 in 16 for 88%.

Stephane Robidas led in shots and blocked shots, with 4 and 6 respectively.

Conclusion: Maybe just a small step up, but this win showed that the Stars are practicing what they’re preaching; simple, tightly defensive hockey, earning every step forward.

SHR +/-:

Nicklas Grossman: minus-one for ending the game -2; -1Stephane Robidas: two for the assist, one for leading in shots and blocked shots, and one for work ethic; +4Matt Niskanen: one for pleasantly surprising us; +1Mike Modano: one for absolutely owning in the faceoff circle; +1Brenden Morrow: one for leading by example and one for going the entire game without screwing up passes; +2Krys Barch: one for being the Stars cop and one for leading the team in takeaways; +2Sean Avery: minus-two for not improving in his weakness (stupid penalties) when the rest of the team did; -2Toby Petersen: two for the assist, minus-one for his huge turnover at our blue line, and one for standing up for Bunny; +2Loui Eriksson: three for each goal and one for just playing so well lately; +7Steve Ott: one for trying to keep himself out of the penalty box and one for sticking up for himself in the end anyway; +2Doug Janik: one for having a very solid game back; +1Marty Turco: three for letting in only two goals in four of the last five games; +3Mark Parrish: three for the goal; +3Philippe Boucher: five for being scratched because he was being traded and awww, Boooo, we’ll miss youuuu; +5Sergei Zubov: two for the assist; +2Mike Ribeiro: two for each assist and one for style/creativity; +7